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As Vietnamese refugee, Lan Phan, founder of The Seventh Community, knew that education would change his life. Her mother was a hairdresser who never made more than $15,000 a year in Inglewood, California. She supported Phan, her two brothers and her father, who could not work due to a disability. Phan entered Stanford University on a scholarship and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
“My life was transformed through education. We can create systemic equity through access to education and eliminate disparities,” says Phan.
In 2020, Phan was a wealth The magazine executive was entrusted with a multi-million dollar budget and a large team to launch a startup within the magazine. Then she received the devastating news of herself and her team dismissal. She struggled with depression and anxiety while separated wealth, so she started posting daily on social media: mostly career lessons she wished she had learned. Her initial audience was her brother and a few friends. One day, one of Phan's posts received 30,000 likes and was viewed by hundreds of thousands. At that time, the Seventh Community was born.
Phan is now on a mission to democratize leadership and development opportunities for purpose-driven leaders. Community of Seven provides group coaching, workshops and training to large Fortune 100 companies and technology startups. It offers free content on social media, including microlearning and live streams on it YouTube channel.
“I grew up in corporate America, where the leaders didn't look like me. I was often the only one at the table who was a black woman,” says Phan. “Those identified as high potential, mostly white men, were given access to coveted leadership and development opportunities. I and many others were never on those lists. I want to change that for the next generation of leaders. “
Here are three lessons Phan offers to founders who are determined to disrupt the way businesses are built.
1. Start with what matters most
“I didn't have access to leadership and development opportunities until my 40s, even though I had been managing large teams since my late 20s,” says Phan. “I was often good enough to create the deck and write the strategy papers, but not to present them. The company wasn't investing in me. I finally realized I had to start investing in myself.”
Given her track record of building businesses, Phan was approached by three venture capital funds with offers to invest in the Seventh Community. While some may have jumped at the chance, Phan declined. “I want the freedom to build on my terms. I want to stop chasing certain targets, including exorbitant membership fees. That's what matters most to me.”
Phan has been withdrawing money from her retirement account to fund her business. She has also taken on contract work in marketing and other side gigs. Her advice to others is not to rush to get funding: focus on clarifying the problem you are trying to solve through your business.
“If you start raising money too early, you can be pressured into growth metrics you can't hit and have less control over the products you're building. Be strategic about raising capital,” says Phan.
2. Develop expertise in multiple areas
“There are trade-offs to not getting funding,” Phan says. “I had to be smart with how I spent the money I had. I learned to do a lot of things on my own until I started bringing in enough income to outsource and get extra support.”
Phan became her social media manager. it empowered myself in social media best practices and learned to create her own graphics, including a brand logo. She learned to build websites, create community platforms, invest in live streaming equipment, and film and edit her own microlearning sessions. She learned the importance of a balance sheet and how not to over-hire herself too quickly or outsource things that could wait.
“By developing expertise in a number of areas, you get to know your business deeply,” says Phan. “And when you bring in those individuals with expertise to help you, you have a better understanding of what you need and how to best work with them because you've done that work before.”
3. Don't be afraid to ask your customers for feedback and adapt
Phan has built her business over several years, testing and trying different offerings. She piloted small organizing groups and got feedback that others could benefit from what was being discussed. She took those lessons and built workshops for Fortune 100 companies. She offered 60-minute workshops and got feedback that some of them could be too long, so now she's offering more bite-sized learning moments. She had so much content on different platforms, and her audience wanted an easier way to access it—so Phan published her first book, Do this every daycentered around the secrets to finding success, happiness and purpose in work and life.
“Don't be afraid to ask your customers for feedback and then adapt,” says Phan. “I see a lot of businesses struggling because they're not willing to adapt or test the things their audience wants.”
Phan continues to offer free resources for its mission to democratize learning for all. She has amassed over 500,000 followers on her social media platforms and built Community of Seven into a six-figure business.
“You don't have to look a certain way, have a certain title, or be friends with the CEO to get access to a coach, a weeklong leadership training, or an exclusive membership-based community,” Phan says. “There should be no gatekeeping. We should all have access to resources to help us become better leaders.”
it WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS® article is part of our ongoing series highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs of running a business as a woman.